Irish retailers taking a hit.

caseyann

I keep hearing them complain on news about taking a hit,and down 6.7% in sales.
They are saying because of snow:rolleyes:
I think because of Irish and other not spending tightening their belts. And giving two fingers to the government
What you think?
They are planning to open St Stephens day in hope people will shop.

goat2

nothing to do with weather, we are all strapped and not spending what we may need come january, we have heating up to the last, buying more coal and turf for fires and we do know we will have the electricity, phone and other bills after christmas , they are the biggest bills of the year, long nights cold weather, less money, less to spend, and rolling back to how we existed fifteen yrs ago, and a good thing too, the country was gone mad,

zig

Theres really no way of knowing, tbf for some, its just not worth the hassle snow wise, so maybe retail will experience a mini boom come the thaw, I reckon its a combination of both to be honest.
My mother encouraged us all to put a cap on us buying presents for each other. 4 'kids' in the family and were spending approx 10/15euro per person, more of a 'thought that counts' kind of thing,maybe this kind of thing is going on all around the country. Things like heating and petrol are more important unfortunately.

Bullseye1

caseyann wrote: »

I keep hearing them complain on news about taking a hit,and down 6.7% in sales.
They are saying because of snow:rolleyes:
I think because of Irish and other not spending tightening their belts. And giving two fingers to the government
What you think?
They are planning to open St Stephens day in hope people will shop.

Well i can tell you the local hotel has had alot of cancellations because people cannot travel due to road conditions.

RichardAnd

It is because of the snow, primarily at least. During the brief thaw last week, I made the mistake of heading into town to pick up some computer parts for work. I passed by Kilkenny Design and believe me when I say it was black with customers. Many other shops were the same too.

Yes, things are tight for many but plenty more still have money to spend and spending it they are. Anyone can believe that we are all unemployed and broke but that simply isn't true. People are still buying TVs, cars, phones and all the other iotas that we seem to think are needed to be happy.

Sadly, this winter wonderland of ours has cooled that off a little (:D).

The_Honeybadger

Just met a mate of mine today in a supermarket car park, he was parking his 2010 car that he bought a few weeks ago through the scrappage deal, I also know plenty of other people in solid jobs who are living life as normal, thankfully most of my family are in this situation, in fact of all my siblings I've probably been the worst affected by the recession as I've had a sizeable paycut and my job is far from safe. Not everybody is broke and I expect the snow is the main reason sales are down.

Voltex

I run an FMCG company and I see a stable pattern over the school year with a marked drop on a certian line out of term...the weather over the last month resembles a summer/out of term trend on one of our lines...so to me at least the weather is playing a major role in the drop in consumer spending.

goat2

it is a needs must, nobodys job is safe

The_Thing

I have absolutely no pity for them, not an ounce - only a few short years ago these same retailers were crowing to all and sundry about the bumper profits they were making at this time of year.

Give the profiteers the two fingers and let them starve. Do your shopping in the North.

caseyann

The_Thing wrote: »

I have absolutely no pity for them, not an ounce - only a few short years ago these same retailers were crowing to all and sundry about the bumper profits they were making at this time of year.

Give the profiteers the two fingers and let them starve. Do your shopping in the North.

I wouldnt say that now,there is a few shops i know of personally,i know the owners aswell and their prices have remained well below the money grabbing over priced scandals of Ireland.I know few and far between but these genuine people are still there.
I did notice dunnes stores and tesco have put their prices up again.It was a packet of toilet rolls,once 45 cent took a hike to 79cent and now all of sudden 1.49 and that all in matter of weeks.
I am with you on those types buying crap for more than half the price and they said that standard of living would be about same as minium wage,yeah whos the tds and bankers i would say.

goat2

The_Thing wrote: »

I have absolutely no pity for them, not an ounce - only a few short years ago these same retailers were crowing to all and sundry about the bumper profits they were making at this time of year.

Give the profiteers the two fingers and let them starve. Do your shopping in the North.

i always found good bargains in the lead up to christmas those few yrs ago, and this year i still found bargains, i would not go north to shop, we need to spread whatever we have here in the south, after all it is here we earned the cash we have, as they say it was made round to go round. keep people in jobs

ted1

yes things are down due to the weather are you surprised?

not yet

Voltex wrote: »

I run an FMCG company and I see a stable pattern over the school year with a marked drop on a certian line out of term...the weather over the last month resembles a summer/out of term trend on one of our lines...so to me at least the weather is playing a major role in the drop in consumer spending.

Come again............

not yet

The_Thing wrote: »

I have absolutely no pity for them, not an ounce - only a few short years ago these same retailers were crowing to all and sundry about the bumper profits they were making at this time of year.

Give the profiteers the two fingers and let them starve. Do your shopping in the North.

Yeah....good idea,lets all spend our money up north, I for one would love no hospitals,prisons,services in general really.

seniorolaighin

let them take the hit - bunch of greedy b******s.....its christmas so thats why the asterixes (is that even spelt right?!)!!!

mikemac

No sympathy

Charlie McCreevy cut the Vat rate from 21% to 20%, now fair enough it wasn't a big cut at all.
But consumers saw no savings, the retailers pocketing the difference. So they put the VAT rate back up.
The same retailers who have the council in Louth print flyers and posters to buy local, buy Irish and they were produced in Newry :rolleyes:

Much like the shop owner who gets the creamery rep to put milk in their fridge and gets more proft the the farmer who take the risk and puts in the work and long hours

Feck the retailers, and if they open St. Stephens Day the staff better be getting double time or a day off in lieu

goat2

feelingstressed wrote: »

No sympathy

Charlie McCreevy cut the Vat rate from 21% to 20%, now fair enough it wasn't a big cut at all.
But consumers saw no savings, the retailers pocketing the difference. So they put the VAT rate back up.
The same retailers who have the council in Louth print flyers and posters to buy local, buy Irish and they were produced in Newry :rolleyes:

Much like the shop owner who gets the creamery rep to put milk in their fridge and gets more proft the the farmer who take the risk and puts in the work and long hours

Feck the retailers, and if they open St. Stephens Day the staff better be getting double time or a day off in lieu

that is stupid of the council, they should practice what they preach, there are plenty printers here in the south, they should be ashamed of themselves

caseyann

Funny from what i saw on news here and UK most people who were in for the sales weren't Irish or British at all lol
And from what i have seen not much of a sale going on.

ardmacha

goat2 wrote: »

that is stupid of the council, they should practice what they preach, there are plenty printers here in the south, they should be ashamed of themselves

The council has no choice but to act legally. If they had to pay compo for discrimination then you'd be on here complaining about incompetant public servants.

gbee

caseyann wrote: »

I keep hearing them complain on news about taking a hit,and down 6.7% in sales..

It's all rubbish, some have taken hits of 50% and still surviving, these retailers would be on the pig's back if they are only taking a 6.7% hit.

Even the civil service have taken a pension's fund increase and a 10% cut and are still well paid, given the general 30~90% profit on a typical high street spread of goods, they are still coining it big-time.

TESCO Ireland are still the jewel in the crown as example and we are still paying more than in the parent state, and still they are down here by a similar figure quoted. In other words they are down LESS than at home or read WE in Ireland are being screwed by even higher prices than we need be screwed by.

I'm absolutely positive the rest of the industry is similar.

RichardAnd

gbee wrote: »

It's all rubbish, some have taken hits of 50% and still surviving, these retailers would be on the pig's back if they are only taking a 6.7% hit.

Even the civil service have taken a pension's fund increase and a 10% cut and are still well paid, given the general 30~90% profit on a typical high street spread of goods, they are still coining it big-time.

TESCO Ireland are still the jewel in the crown as example and we are still paying more than in the parent state, and still they are down here by a similar figure quoted. In other words they are down LESS than at home or read WE in Ireland are being screwed by even higher prices than we need be screwed by.

I'm absolutely positive the rest of the industry is similar.

a friend of mine used to work for Easons. He told me once that they sold plastic folders for ~20 quid that were bought by the shop for 1.50 each. The profit mark up on some items is amazing.

Dannyboy83

Snow my hole...............this isn't rocket science.
The more you tax the people, the more you strangle your economy.
Hence the saying - You can't tax your way out of a recession.

Austrian theory says A. cut taxation, B. cut current spending and C. increase capital spending (if you can).

Virtually everyone in the country is down money through pay cuts or taxation.
Some by substantial amounts.
Some by 100%
Fuel costs 50% more per litre now than it did 3 years ago.
Colossal amounts of Excise lost to smuggling due to the most expensive cigarettes and alcohol in Europe.
State charges still among the worst in the EU, costs about €80 just to get a flipping passport!
etc. etc.

Tax..Tax...more tax.

Just think about it - if we had a competent public health service - all those people across the country with private health insurance would have at least €50 extra disposable income per month. Every month.

Yea, but we're going the opposite direction.
People pay more tax on smaller wages than they 3 years ago, but we are still spending the same amount of money as we did 3 years ago!! LOL

Typically Irish:D
We are fcuked.

Rodin

45 cans of Heineken/Carlsberg in Newry for £20?
Get thee up north

later12

Well the UK vat rate is about to rise a pretty significant 2.5% to 20% from January 4th so don't expect that to last.

Also, from what I have read, many retailers in Northern Ireland are announcing that they are taking the hit on the VAT rate and there will be no hit taken by the customer. In fact this appears to be false, with many retailers reported as having risen their prices during the month of December in anticipation of the coming tax hike.

Biggins

Initially its down to the weather but in the long term (and you will see this at the start of January) what little there was in previous years post-Christmas, there will be much less spent than before in previous years.

There is always a lull in the period of January up to around St Patricks day yearly but next year with everyone hanging on to the few remaining Euros they are hiding away from our rotten government, they will even spend much less more so.

So initially while its easy to blame the weather (and true to some degree) there is already an element of not spending as much due to fear of what else might come from FF/Greens and the next tax/levy/made up charge they can dream and other related economic factors!

goat2

ardmacha wrote: »

The council has no choice but to act legally. If they had to pay compo for discrimination then you'd be on here complaining about incompetant public servants.

compo me arse, that money the council has was made in the county, so should be spent if at all possible within the county, taken from the people but not given back to the people, do you see their bin charges, car tax all of this belong to people residing in the county, least they could do is give back to the very ones who are paying for the thing

Tigger

When was vat 20%?

DublinWriter

Tigger wrote: »

When was vat 20%?

In 2002/2003, but only briefly.

Mr.Micro

goat2 wrote: »

i always found good bargains in the lead up to christmas those few yrs ago, and this year i still found bargains, i would not go north to shop, we need to spread whatever we have here in the south, after all it is here we earned the cash we have, as they say it was made round to go round. keep people in jobs

Sound philosophy. At the same time by shopping in the North one can have more money left and still get bargains ......have your cake and eat it. On the whole bargains are few here in the south as retailers are addicted to ripping consumers off, despite the downturn.

goat2

these boys here in the south know that their customers have a good idea before , they leave home how much an item costs. as we look it up on the net, and if it is dearer in shop we can leave it to them; we cannot be fooled anymore, i would rather do without than pay over the odds

Amhran Nua

goat2 wrote: »

that is stupid of the council, they should practice what they preach, there are plenty printers here in the south, they should be ashamed of themselves

All of the political parties do the same to the best of my knowledge. I always use local suppliers whenever I'm getting any flyers printed or anything like that, even though it might end up costing more and I've an exponentially smaller budget. Also I'm not sure the councils are legally obliged to take the lowest offer, they can take the best offer by whatever criteria they set themselves, which can include benefits to the local economy.